TFU: Here's the Key, but Where's the Lock?
by nightwing 132
Summary: Prelude to something else.  Bumblebee is sent on a mission to search in a place the Autobots didn't know about before-and so close to home, too. There he finds not Decepticons, but something even more puzzling. Something he thinks is... a Key.


A/N: TAD: Hey, guys, this is a prelude to a part of a story series. It wasn't uploaded with the rest of it because... Uhm, we were lazy.  
Nothing basically used that isn't copyrighted to HasTak. Brief cameo by an OC used, but never refered to by name.

* * *

"Do you believe in the occult?"

"What?" Carly asked, eyeing Spike to make sure he hadn't lost his mind. The boy _looked_ perfectly sane... But why ask this, of all things, while dropping her off at her house?

"Y'know, like ghosts!" Spike emphasized, waving his hands. "I mean, there _used_ to be wizards. And we _know_ there's aliens." He padded the hood of the yellow Volkswagon beside him. The car thrummed under the boy's touch, powerful and secure. "What if there's more?"

Carly looked amused at this, before stating, "I'm not sure, to be honest. Everything's so topsy turvy now..." She paused, before looking at her home, also very secure, before looking back at Spike. "Everything I thought I knew about the 'Supernatural'"-she used air quotes for emphasis-"is pretty much gone. I mean, I didn't think there were aliens, and now look at us!"

Spike chuckled, and the car made another thrumming sound to that sort of rhythm.

"_Carly!_" The blonde girl jumped at the sound of her name, before turning to the voice and calling back a "I'll be right there!"

She turned back to her friend, a pained but knowing look on his face. "Guess I'll see you later, Spike," she said, almost sadly.

"Guess so. Same time tomorrow?"

"Sure!" And before Spike could open the car door and drive away, Carly leaned forward and pecked him lightly on the cheek. A wink, and she was away on her flight to her front door.

The mechanic's son had slumped against the yellow door, staring after the curved figure in wonder. "Wowwie-zowwie. That was... different." He stumbled into the car and sat in the driver's seat, looking very much like he had entirely lost track of time and space. "Did you see that, 'Bee?"

"Saw it, yeah," the car purred. "What kind of human custom is that again?"

"It's, uh, affection. Usually between family members or, uh... close, _close_ firends." Bumblebee's frame shook, as though in laughter. "Hey, you won't tell anyone, right 'Bee?"

"Not if you don't want me to, Spike," came the cheerful response. And he wouldn't.

Scanning over a map in his CPU, he located the fastest way to Spike's home. Normally, the humans would stay at the Autobot base for indefinite periods at a time, but it seemed to take an odd toll on them, the excitement. In a compromise, the humans would stay at the base for a while, but had to spend equal or more time at their own homes to recover from anything that might have happened during their stay.

Of course, Chip had asked if they could maybe cat-proof his home at some point in time, then. There was merriment and laughter, and Optimus had said maybe they could figure something out. Nothing had been done, in the end, but Bumblebee knew they had tried to think of several ways to keep the humans under supervision without them knowing. It wasn't a malicious thing at all, really, but there was the ever-present threat of the Decepticons using the humans against them in a plot totally cruel and inhumane.

It was a prominent fear of his.

"You know," Bumblebee began, revving his engine and setting off on his pre-planned course, "There can't be a 'same time tomorrow'. Remember?"

Spike put a hand to his forehead. "Oh, man, that's right! I'm just so used to saying that." He felt the floor tremble in a purr.

"Don't worry about it, Spike. Carly's smart enough to remember about it." Before Spike could point out that she had said 'sure', the cheery mech continued gently, "And I'm sure she only accepted because she's used to it, too."

"So, how long do you think 'till we can all hang out again?"

"Not sure. Probably not for a while, again. Especially since Red Alert had another 'freak-out'."

"I don't think he's been the same since that glitch episode," Spike muttered, hands resting only somewhat convincingly on the steering wheel. "I mean, he's usually okay, and then _bam!_ He goes on... yeah, a freak-out!" And he laughed. The floor trembled again, this time in laughter as well.

It wasn't a bad day, all-in-all. The pale blue sky shone above, a lone raptor circling lazily on the eddies. And the sun, while it wasn't exactly like you could look at it, wasn't quite as bright and hot as usual - just right. But, all-too-soon, the walls of Spike and Sparkplug's home showed among the rows of other homes. Sparkplug hadn't been feeling himself, lately, but later found out that all the work and running around was wearing him out and building up stress. Feeling that he should try to ease it on himself, he had opted out of the latest Autobot visit, much to Spike's combined chagrin and relief.

Spike jimmied Bumblebee's door open and stepped out on the sidewalk. Birdsong echoed from in a nearby tree, and a cat lounged lazily on his neighbor's porch. It was hard to believe anyone would try to destroy this peace, but he knew, up close and personal, that indeed there were such people, be them humans... or Decepticons.

"Guess I'll see you later, 'Bee. Take care."

"You, too, Spike." The Autobot waited until the boy had opened the door and disappeared into the structure. He turned over his engine again and plotted the fastest way to the Autobot base.

* * *

"Hey, Screamer, whatcha doin'?"

The Seeker let out a startled yelp before turning and glaring daggers at the two smaller mechs that had somehow managed to sneak in. Well, that was what he got for being too absorbed in his work. "Don't you two know not to startle someone carrying highly dangerous, explosive chemicals?" Starscream hissed. "I could have combined them too quickly and quite possibly spilled them on you. Now, while that has no effect on me at all, I'd never hear the end of it from Megatron _or_ Soundwave." _Especially Soundwave_, he added grimly to himself.

The two cassettes grinned wickedly. "Dangerous chemicals?" they chorused. "What're those for?"

"None of your business. Now, scram, before I 'accidently' _do_ spill them on you!"

Taking a cue when they saw it, they scrambled out, into the hallway, still grinning. "I thought Screamer quit all that sciency baloney?" Rumble mused when he figured they were out of hearing range.

"Maybe he's having a nosetaligee-a thing," Frenzy suggested, butchering the word as he did so.

"Maybe." A pause. "Should we tell Soundwave?"

Frenzy's grin widened. "I dun't see why not. Anythin' Screamer does is fishy, and we were told to report anythin' fishy." The two high-fived with a _clang,_ and strolled purposefully to the Communications Room.

Reaching the door without any commotion at all, they squabbled a bit over who should stand on whose shoulders to reach the keypad. Resigning with a sigh, Rumble squatted down, while Frenzy gave a fist pump and scrambled on his twin's shoulders. Trying not to stand up fast as to appear to unbalance his brother in retaliation, Rumble rose slowly and heard Frenzy's fingers rapidly punch in the entrance code. The door opened with a _whoosh_, and, before Rumble could figure out a way to throw his brother off, a head poked out of the doorway and looked down at them.

The three of them stared at each other for a while, before Rumble finally recognized this mech as the communications officer in-training from Cybertron. Frenzy must've recognized him as well, because he stated simply, "Hey there, fresh steel."

Realizing the two weren't going to bite his head off, he responded with a weak, tired 'hey' and retreated into the room. Frenzy jumped off Rumble's shoulders and the two followed him in.

It was unusually dark, but the twins could easily tell there was no Soundwave. Reflector looked up from his, or rather their, seats, eyeing the two in an odd way. "Are you here to relieve us?" the multi-component asked skeptically.

"Well," they began, looking at each other oddly. Rumble finished that sentence. "We were really looking for Soundwave."

"He'll be here soon," Reflector stated, almost eagerly.

Frenzy almost asked how long they'd been sitting there, but bit his glossa. Instead he asked, "What're ya doin'?"

"Surveillance," they responded. "Laserbeak found one of the Autobots and is trailing him. Nothing special."

The cassettes pulled faces as they realized they probably wouldn't be able to get out of it in the end. Might as well watch it while there was _something _on the screen. "Awright," Rumble muttered. "We'll do it for ya."

The three components raised their fists in celebration before scrambling out of there.

The two climbed into the seats, staring at the screen to get an idea of what was so boring and dull.

Laserbeak was relatively high. He could get a fairly decent picture, but no audio. Frenzy noted that the audio was turned off, and when turned on there was only the sound of wind interfering. So he turned it off again, focusing instead on what the video was all about. The Autobot - Bumblebee, he believed - was parked in front of a human structure of some kind. It must've been a living quarters, because he was letting one of the squishies go in alone, and then drove away. Frenzy glanced at Rumble, who looked bored out of his wit's end.

A loud sound and the two jumped, clinging to each other before dropping to the floor and looking around. It came again, louder, and the two looked over at the in-trainee, who was slumped against the console, in a noisy recharge. They visibly relaxed, chortling as they did so.

The door opened with a _whoosh_, and they watched as Soundwave walked in, looking about the room, as if wondering where the sound, that must've been audible outside of the room, was coming from. The blue mech walked over to the slumped form, watching intently. He pulled a datapad from somewhere on his person, before thawking the other mech across the back of the head. It connected with a solid _crack_ and the mech jumped up, calling out, "_Ow! _Forty-two, _forty-two_!"

This had the twins rolling on the floor, unable to circulate air, for what seemed like a breem. Soundwave sighed, pointed for the trainee to continue work, and hauled the twins to their feet, them crying in protest against unnecessary force. "State reason for being in communications room while off-duty," Soundwave droned out.

"Well, Boss-bot, Screamer was doin' something funny with chemicals in one of the storage rooms," Rumble began.

"Yeah!" Frenzy input. "It was really weird, so we came to tell you about it in case he's up to something again!"

"And then when we came here to find you, Reflector had us put on surveillance while he-they went out for, uh, a stretch!"

The twins nodded rapidly at this and looked up at Soundwave expectantly. The larger mech simply sighed before stating, "Starscream's strange activity: noted. Rumble, Frenzy: continue surveillance in Reflector's place."

Rumble and Frenzy gaped at the tape player as he walked out of the room and out of sight.

"Did he just-?"

"Yeah, yeah, he did."

"And we got stuck with-?"

"Yeah, yeah, we did."

Rumble stamped on the floor in frustration, shutting off the drums in his chest just in time. "Not cool! This _bites_!"

Frenzy's face contorted as he nodded. "Yeah, it sucks eggs, as the squishies put it, but ain't nothin' we kin do about it." He eyed Rumble as the other mech climbed up into one of the seats, watching the screen like one would watch paint dry.

"An' the worst part is, he ain't even _doin' _anythin'!" Rumble continued raving. "He's just _driving_ somewhere!"

"Where?" Frenzy asked, scrambling into the next seat to get a look.

"The Pit if I know," Rumble muttered. He saw an orange shape emerge among the shades of brown in the desert. "Looks like homebase. But we already know where _that_ is," he added, rolling his head much like humans did when they rolled their eyes.

For a while, it was just driving up to the large ship, up until he reached the entrance. There, the yellow mech transformed, meeting up with a curved, pinkish 'bot near the entrance of the Ark. Rumble and Frenzy leaned forward, narrowing their optics.

"Is that a lady bot?"

"That's _the_ lady bot!"

They grinned at each other. "She's here, on this mudball," they echoed together. They whooped, earning an odd look from the trainee.

"I thought they transferred her back to Cybertron after we blew up their medbay!"

"Guess they didn't."

The door opened one last time, three figures stepping in. "We can take back over," Reflector announced, though he didn't look happy about it. He lifted an optic ridge at the cassettes' faces' close proximity to the screen, and the almost disappointed look they gave him. "Scram," the multi-component added viciously.

The two stumbled over each other and out of the room. The door _whoosh_ed close, and as Reflector walked toward the seats, the trainee muttered a "Thank Primus" before turning to Reflector and asking, with a hint of dread, "Is everyone here absolutely _insane_?"

"Fully, totally, and completely."

* * *

"Were the kids all over you when you dropped them off?" Arcee asked, amusement layering her voice. She asked because the first time during the compromise, it took an Earth hour to drop off each group.

"Not this time," Bumblebee responded. "Maybe next," he added with a hint of laughter.

Arcee had grown a kind of attachment to Bumblebee. He wasn't sure what sort of attachment it was to her, and often times he wasn't sure what his attachment to her was, himself.

Arcee's face grew serious. "Ironhide told me, to tell you, that Optimus wants you to go on patrol up in the mountains," she reported.

Bumblebee's face grew just as serious. "Why?" he inquired. "Do we think the 'Cons are doing something above us?"

"It wouldn't be the first time. You know them, they prefer having the most literal upper-hand they can."

He sighed. "Yeah, I know." He looked around. "Should we go inside real quick? Maybe I can ask Optimus exactly what he wants me to look for."

"I don't know. Wouldn't you just look for anything... Decepticon-y?" Arcee suggested, wiggling her fingers for emphasis and to acknowledge what she said was ridiculous.

His face twisted into an expression of amusement. "There's a lot of Decepticon-y things," he said, trying to deadpan, but laughing anyways. "I just wanna know what kind of Decepticon-y things I'm looking for."

"Well, anything dangerous-looking and purple might constitute as Decepticon-y," Arcee went on. "And sometimes it's just plain purple."

Bumblebee shrugged with a smile on his faceplates. "It doesn't matter to me, as long as I know what I'm doing."

"Makes sense. Be careful, 'Bee."

"I will," the mech promised, making off in the opposite direction of his comrade. It didn't take long for him to enter the main 'hub' of the Ark, where Gears sat, hitting a button on the keyboard over and over again. "Having fun, Gears?" Bumblebee asked cheerily.

The red 'bot made a sound equivalent to snorting. "Fun as a pig in a clean box," he responded with a slight growl. Wondering where he pulled that from, but not really wanting to ask, the yellow minibot headed on to the rec room.

The twins were lounging about, whispering very secretly amongst themselves. When Bumblebee walked in, the whispering stopped and they looked at him as if he should have known better. "What?" he asked in a worried tone.

"You just walked into a private conversation," Sunstreaker stated darkly.

"This is the rec room," Bumblebee retorted, waving an arm to indicate the area. "Everyone's allowed to use the rec room."

The golden bot also gave the equivalence of snorting before turning to the wall. Sideswipe gave Bumblebee an apologizing look, but didn't really need to. Bumblebee knew Sunstreaker by now, and the trick was not to let him get under your plates. Then you'd be fine. Unless he turned a blaster on you. Of course, on the other hand, that would be a different issue.

"You look lost, 'Bee," Sideswipe observed.

"I'm looking for Prime."

"Try under the human sofa," Sunstreaker growled.

At Bumblebee's questioning look, Sideswipe made a gesture that he had come to learn as "I'll tell you later." Usually it meant something happened to Sunstreaker's paintjob, but there was always the odd day.

"He's probably in the storeroom, having a secret conference with the top tiers," Sideswipe suggested.

"I don't want to know why you know about a secret meeting."

"Hey, you're catching on!" the red Lamborghini laughed.

Sighing in defeat, Bumblebee moved on, trying to think of where Prime could be, barring secret-meeting-he-could-not-waltz-into. _You could comm him_, he thought to himself, the idea coming oddly late. _You wouldn't have to look for him then. _He placed his palm against the side of his face and sighed. _Yep, I'm not all here right now. Should I even be doing this mission at all?_

He placed a finger on the side of his helm. As he did so, he felt himself internally questioning the action. After deciding it was basic programming that was never removed after it had become obsolete, he focused back onto his objective at hand.

"_Optimus, this is Bumblebee to Optimus._"

"_Yes, Bumblebee, I read you._"

"_If you're not busy, sir,_" the minibot began carefully. "_I'd like to know what sort of things you'd like me to look out for by the mountain._"

There was a pause on the other side, and Bumblebee waited with a bit of unease, not entirely sure what to expect. After another moment, the deep comforting voice came back. "_Bumblebee, I need you to find anything that may look like it had been tampered with in the cave systems above us._"

"_Cave systems? I wasn't aware there _were _cave systems in the mountain._"

"_Yes, initially I was not, as well,_" Optimus admitted, "_But Perceptor says his equipment is picking up strange signals and energy readings above us inside the mountain, so we are to assume caves must exist._"

"_And you think it might be the Decepticons?_" he asked, to make sure, although he knew well what the answer was.

"_I wouldn't put it past them, considering the tricks and plans they have tried before._"

Bumblebee set his body straight, despite his leader not being anywhere near him. "_Then I'll do my best, sir._"

"_It's all I ask, Bumblebee._" Another pause. "_Be careful out there._"

"_Roger that. Bumblebee out._"

"_Optimus Prime out._"

He headed past the rec room again, into the main hub. He was just about to reach the entrance when he heard Gears grunt, "Going out again, I see. Must be fun, not being on button-pressing duty."

Bumblebee grinned, reading between the lines. "Yeah, I'll be careful," he said, the words embedded as an automatic response at this point.

Another grunt, "You make sure you do."

And with that, the young bot stepped out into the orange light of the descending sun.

* * *

Terror filled him as the rock crumbled under his weight. Flailing for another grip, his fingers managed to catch another boulder, this one stronger and better lodged into the mountain's side. He let out a cycle of relief. "Yeah, that was smooth, 'Bee," he chided himself. "If you're going to be knocked out on a mission, don't have a mountain do it. The twins'll never let you live it down." He carefully felt out with his legs, trying to find 'proper' footholds. It was difficult, but he managed to make slow progress up the stony incline.

He checked the map of the mountain side and estimated where the cave entrance might be located and how much farther he had to go. To his surprise, a suspected entrance was not at all far away, and was just over the next ridge. With renewed vigor, he scrambled across the rest of the stone field.

Its maw was wide, revealing an inky blackness that seemed almost ominous. Bumblebee shakily walked under its archway, flicking on night vision. He stepped into the tunnel, which if he was as tall as most other Cybertronians, he would have to duck slightly. Contemplating on that, he threw a scanning glance over the walls. His sensors showed a dampness that was near-constant, with moss growing over any surface it could.

He reached a large circular area, which sent his systems on alert. He ducked against a wall, silently scanning the area in detail. No other signatures were present.

He started as an error popped up on his HUD with no message other than stating simply, "ERROR ERROR." He ran a cursory diagnostic on his systems to discover that the only thing odd was that his transforming sequence had temporarily been disabled. Unable to find out why, he settled for asking Ratchet for a check-up later.

A sound, not unlike that of small rocks skittering across the ground, reached his audios. After deducing he was the only one in the cave, he crept forward, careful to keep as quiet as possible. After reaching what he thought was the source of the sound, he curiously scanned the area. Interestingly, a small opening was located in the side of the wall he was standing next to. He let his fingers trail over the edges, trying to figure out how to make it wide enough for him to squeeze through. He pushed experimentally against the boulders to his right, finding they moved over just enough for his shoulders to fit through it.

Slipping through the opening, he found himself in a significantly smaller, box-like chamber. He flinched as the skittering sound became louder and quicker, almost a constant high buzzing. His HUD displayed more unusual errors, but more diagnostics revealed nothing else had gone wrong with his hardware or software. Internal klaxons began to sound, not audible from outside his hull, but almost unbearable from the inside. He pressed his hands to his head as the sources of sounds began to muddle his concentration.

It was then that, when Bumblebee was seriously considering shutting off his audials, that everything stopped. The pebbles did not skitter, the klaxons did not blare; his processor was suddenly and surprisingly clear. He looked around him, his head turning with a lazy slowness he couldn't explain. Not a sound emitted from anywhere, not even a distant sound from outside, animal or wind or otherwise.

It all had just... _stopped_.

His chronometer indicated the seconds passing, but every one of them felt like a minute, and after the first five seconds, they began to feel like hours. Logically, Bumblebee knew this wasn't right; his chronometer was fully functioning and he had no reason to doubt that it was correct. However, despite this reassurance to himself, he couldn't help but feel unsettled by this eerie sensation infiltrating his sensors.

And then there was a brilliance, an astonishing sight that he couldn't comprehend at the moment of the light's glory. He shut his optics off, but still felt as if he hadn't. This too bothered him, and he decided to run and scramble into the med bay as soon as possible... He onlined his optics to a spark-chilling sight.

Jutting from the stone wall at a disturbing angle, and flailing about, as if looking for someone to lend it a hand, was indeed the strangest arm he'd seen, a circle of glowing green and white rimming the elbow, where it abruptly ended. The arm itself was a sickly green, with rust crusting and marring the flaking paint. The digits of the servo were tightly clasped around a strange, elliptical object, which also seemed covered in the orange-brown rust. This by itself disturbed him - what if it was cosmic rust? What could he do? Could he scan to find out the difference?

The arm's flailing became more frantic, before it finally released its treasure and pulled quickly into the tiny 'hole' in which it had come. With a _pop_ (which he 'felt' more than heard) the 'hole' disappeared, shrinking into itself. After what seemed like a breem or two, Bumblebee cycled again, relieved to be online and vaguely intact.

With alarm, he remembered the strange object which had been flung from it holder's grasp. He looked about hurriedly for it, after discovering he couldn't access his scanners, either. Cursing in one of the few times in his very long life, he ran his servos over the ground, his night vision only helpful for avoiding an abrupt and unplanned meeting with a wall.

His fingers brushed up against a rough object, and everything started again with such a loud and furious fervor that Bumblebee was nearly knocked senseless. But, to his dismay, it was not the skittering of rocks or klaxons groaning that hit his audials - no! - it was a horrid, high sound he couldn't place, a feeling of despair and screaming until there was no way to continue doing so, and cruel laughter. It was the sound of heavy footfalls, gasping in confusion and horror, and metal on metal, banging and shrieking and whistling. It was growling and chirping, and becoming over_whelming_.

It was war, all contained and resounding in the small chamber. It was simply too much. It was too much on an entire planet - it was absolutely devastating in a box.

Stumbling to get his bearings, he rose slowly, the strange object still in his hands. _What is this thing? _he asked himself. Whatever it was, it seemed a dangerous idea to leave it here, free for the taking. Bumblebee trudged out of the cave, picking his way carefully down the mountain. He didn't really remember walking, though. He didn't even remember why he was shaking. That was worrisome.

His fingers were curled around the object still; he was afraid to subspace it. He knew it was strange to think this, but it was one of two things he thought while he grasped it tightly. First, it was dangerous to subspace, to leave in such a personal and close compartment, and second... well, it felt ridiculous, even when he thought it. However, there it was, and he felt he had to call it something.

He thought it was a key of some sort; no, not just any key, it felt like _the_ Key. _But what would it open?_ He thought, pausing for the first time to really look at it. It was indeed elliptical, with prongs jutting out of it at one end. In the rust, almost engraved, were lines slightly darker, as though burned there, and nearly invisible unless one was specifically looking for something there.

A strange Key indeed.


End file.
